American filmmaker Ramin Bahrani (99 Homes) segues into documentaries without a hitch in this thoughtful, quietly expressive portrait of a quintessentially American entrepreneur.

| Sep 28, 2023

Fascinating and surprisingly entertaining.

| Dec 13, 2022

There’s something irresistible about the story of the former pizza guy who invented the modern concealable bulletproof vest, and Richard Davis isn’t about to let the doubts about his origin story...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 9, 2022

"For the most part, “2nd Chance” is right on target. But in the end, its aim isn’t quite true."

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Dec 5, 2022

It's the interviews in the film’s epilogue that give this film greater depth and shading and elevate it to unexpected emotional heights.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Dec 2, 2022

A Greek tragedy and a Shakespearean comedy with a touch of “Tiger King” all expertly rolled into one all-too-pertinent cautionary tale.

| Dec 2, 2022

Beetles along without fully exploiting Davis’s ample entertainment value, which is counterbalanced by accounts of his dubious actions and sometimes unseemly opinions.

| Dec 1, 2022

2nd Chance a terrific American tall tale as well as a cautionary tale and a ripping good yarn.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Nov 29, 2022

“2nd Chance” may be the best Errol Morris movie that Errol Morris never made.

| Mar 4, 2022

Through startlingly candid interviews, wild archival footage, and a keen visual sense, Bahrani shows how Davis’s invention changed the world, and what the true lasting effects of that change have been.

| Feb 23, 2022

Bahrani gradually reveals that what seems like a portrait is actually just a piece of a much larger (and more moving) landscape.

| Feb 4, 2022

There are so many incredibly entertaining pieces to Richard's saga, allocated into potent chapters, and Bahrani is in masterful control of their larger meaning.

| Feb 1, 2022

Bahrani, so acclaimed for being a filmmaker with an eye on injustice, fails to reckon with one of his more pressing themes, treating the daily, terroristic violence of the police state as an accepted and unquestioned fact of this particular American life.

| Jan 26, 2022

A rich film that nevertheless calls regular attention to any of the even richer (if perhaps less entertaining) films it might have been.

| Original Score: C+ | Jan 25, 2022

Bahrani has made a good film, albeit one with a tremendous closing twist that I felt pointed to what could instead have been a great film.

| Jan 23, 2022